Home Is Where the Heart Is

I've had a very busy weekend! Yesterday I headed upstate to my parent's house so I could take Rocky to the vet. Shocker...he has something NEW wrong with him! Although I hate when he has bully issues and I certainly hate spending so much dang $ on these issues, I have to admit I loved the excuse to go home.

Rocky and Tow Mater. BFF.

I do get to see my family fairly often because they're just a few short hours drive away.  It's been a while since I've seen everyone so I was sure to make the rounds during my short trip home.  Rocky and I visited with my aunt, I went out to dinner with my parents and I even spent some time with my grandparents and their house full of animals!

Oh, and I hung out with this one-eyed guy too!

Hi Wile. E.

As I've said many times before, one of my favorite things to do is go running with my dad.  So of course I did that too!  When I woke up (a little late) this morning, the weather was absolutely perfect.  I mean sunny and mid 50-60 degrees! Amazing.  Dad probably wanted to do a longer run, but I told him my training called for somewhere between 7-9 miles.  

My parents live less than a mile from the Dutchess Rail Trail, a running/walking/biking trail that covers about 12 miles through the middle of Dutchess County.  It's pretty much flat and since you can access it from several entrances, it's great for short runs away from dangerous cars or can be added as part of a longer distance.  

So we started out on the Rail Trail and covered 3ish miles heading over to Vassar College campus.  Although Dad promised there wouldn't be hills on this run, Vassar has does a few inclines.  It wasn't so bad.  And it's a really pretty campus that was super quiet because school is obviously not back in session yet.  In hindsight, I should've snapped a few pictures of the pretty views and buildings throughout campus.

Dad also showed me a "hidden gem" in Vassar Farm, which is huge and I never even knew it existed from driving by on the road.  

Farms? Yeah, we don't have those in Queens.

After a quick visit to this big old farm (which of course has now intrigued me and has me looking into the Poughkeepsie Farm Project), we doubled back and headed back home via the Rail Trail.

Not quite a NYC intersection.

So we did a nice 8.5 miles, keeping a 9:50ish pace.  Good stuff. 

Overall, my whirlwind weekend home was awesome. Doesn't get much better than running with Dad, visiting the rest of the fam, and doing some laundry for free! :)